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in 11llttK0x*iam, 



Ijtivmlltou ^ish. 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



LEGISLATURE 



OF THE 



STATE OF NEW YORK 



IN MEMORY OP 



HON. HAMILTON FISH, 



HELD AT THE 



CAPITOL, THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 8, 1894. 



ALBANY : 
JAMES B. LYON, PRINTER. 

1894. 

L - 



'Of 



Joint Committee of the Legislature. 



Senate Committee. 

CHARLES T. SAXTON, JOHN LEWIS CHILDS, 

HARVEY J. DONALDSON, AMASA J. PARKER, 

JOHN F. AHEARN. 



Assembly Committee. 



DANFORTH E. AINSWORTH, S. FREDERICK NIXON, 

EDWARD H. THOMPSON, LAMBERT B. KERN, 

OTIS H. CUTLER, ALBERT A. WRAY, 

WILLIAM SULZER, ROBERT P. BUSH, 

EDWARD B. La FETRA. 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



Legislature of the State of New York 



IN RELATION TO THE DEATH OF 



Hon. HAMILTON FISH. 



PROCEEDI NGS. 



In Senate, 
Albany, February 26 



V 1894. ) 



Mr. Saxton offered a resolution in the 
following words : 

"Whereas, The Legislature has heard with deep 
regret of the death, on September 7th last, of the 
Honorable Hamilton Pish, who had filled with great 
distinction the offices of Governor of this State, 
Senator in Congress, and Secretary of State in the 
National Government. 

liesolved (if the Assembly concur). That a joint 
committee of the Legislature, consisting of five Senators 
and nine Members of Assembl3\ be appointed by the 
presiding officers of the respective Houses to arrange 
a suitable memorial of the deceased statesman and 
report what further action shall be taken with 
reference thereto, and further 

Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That a cordial 
invitation be and hereby is extended to the Honorable 
George F. Edmunds, of A^ermont, to deliver an 
oration upon the life and public services of the 
deceased at a time and place to be provided by 
said joint committee. 



%xi 2>Xcmovium. 



The I*residp:nt put the question on the 
adoption of said resolution and it was unani- 
mously adopted by a I'ising vote, and ordered 
sent to the Assembly for their concurrence. 

The Assembly subsequently returned the 
concurrent resolution relative to the death 
of Hon Hamilton Fish with a message that 
they have concurred in the passage of the 
same. 

The Presidp:xt appointed as the committee 
on the part of the Senate to act with the 
Assembly to arrange memorial exercises in 
honor of the late Hamilton Fish, Messrs. 
Saxton, Childs, Donaldson, Parker and 
Ahearn. 

Mr. Speakkr appointed as the committee 
on the part of the Assembly, Messrs. Ains- 
worth, Nixon, Thompson, Kern, Cutler, Wray, 
Sulzer, Bush and La Fetra. 

At a meeting of the above joint com- 
mittee it was decided to hold a memorial 
service in the xVssembly chamber at such 
time as would suit the convenience of 
Hon (xeorge F Edmunds, of Vermont, who 



lO 



Jton. ilamlltou Fistt. 



was iuvited by the committee to deliver 
the memorial address. 

The Hon. George F. Edmunds accepted 
the invitation and named Thursday evening, 
April 5th, as the date for the memorial 
service. 



11 



MEMORIAL SERVICE. 



Assembly Chamber, ) 
Albany, April 5, 1894. S 

The Legislature having met in joint session 
in the Assembly chamber, in pursuance of the 
arrangements made by the joint memorial 
committee, Roswell P. Flower, Governor, and 
State officers being present, the meeting was 
called to order by Hon. Charles T. Saxton, 
chaiiman of the joint committee. 

The hymn, " Lead Kindly Light," was 
suno- bv the choir of Saint Peter's church 

of Albany. 

Prayer was offered by Rt Rev. William 
Croswell Doane, Bishop of Albany, as follows : 

Almighty and everlasting Clod, we yield unto thee 
most high praise and hearty thanks for the wonderful 
grace and virtue declared in all thy saints, who have 
been the choice vessels of thy grace and the lights of 
the world m their several generations; most humbly 
beseeching thee to give us grace so to follow the 
example of their steadfastness in thy faith, and obedience 
to thy holy commandments, that at the day of the 



13 



fix Btcmoriam* 



general Resurrection, we, with all those who are of 
the mystical body of thy Son, may be set on Ilis 
right hand, and hear that His most joyful voice : 
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom 
prepared for you fi'om the foundation of the world. 
Grant this, O Father, for J^sus Christ's sake, our only 
Mediator and Advocate. Amen. 

The anthem^ " Eia Mater/' was rendered 
by the choir. 

Hon. Charles T. Saxton, in introducing 
Hon. (xeorge F. Edmunds, of Vermont, 
spoke as follows : 

Hamilton Fish was a notable figure both 
in our State and in our National politics. 
He rendered invaluable services to his 
country and won enduring fame as a broad- 
minded, sagacious and patriotic statesman. 
We point with pride to the fact that he 
was a citizen of our State, and have taken 
this method of testifying to our respect for 
his memory. Let us congratulate ourselves 
that we have with us this evening a dis- 
tinii^uished i!:entleman whose lonn: and honor- 
able pubUc career is known to every one 
present, and who was for many years the 
personal and poUtical friend of our deceased 

14 



gton. pamiltow ^isTi. 



fellow citizen. ] refer to the Honorable 
George F. Edmunds, of Vermont, one of the 
best known of living Americans, who is here 
by invitation of the Leo;islature. I esteem 
it an honor to introduce him to this audience 
and T am sure we all feel it a oreat 
privilege to have the opportunity of listen- 
ing to him on this interesting occasion. 

Hon. (leorge F. Edmunds then delivered 
the following memorial address: 

Mr. President and (Iextlemex of the 
Legislature. — To officiallv commemorate the 
lives and public services of those citizens 
of the State who have been deservedly 
conspicuous in promoting the progress and 
welftire of its people is a pleasant and 
useful duty ; and the duty and pleasure 
are still larger when the citizen who is 
thus brought vividly into remembrance 
has impressed his intelligent and patriotic 
thoughts upon the principles, policies, and 
movements of a nation, — a nation in 
which and of which the peoj)le of the 
State of New York have been from the 
Colonial and Revolutionary days, of more 



15 



In i^Xcmnrlam. 



than a century ago to the present time, 
a most important and valuable component 
part, both in their character as a State 
sovereign in all the constitutional respects 
so wisely and carefully allotted by the 
founders of the Republic, and as citizens 
of a united and indivisible community 
with common interests, with common affec- 
tions, with common hopes, and a common 
destiny, embracing all the dwellers in a 
bind of States and people extending from 
the stormy eastern coasts of the continent 
where landed Pilgrims and Puritans upon 
New England shores — the Dutch on Man- 
hattan, the Swedes in Delaware, Royalists 
along the Chesapeake, and Huguenots 
upon the southern coasts — to the smiling 
shores of the tranquil sea where the pious 
missionaries of the Spanish Regime Avere 
at the same time extending their conquests 
of religion, civilization, and peace among 
the untutored natives of the land. 

Such a citizen was Hamilton Fish. 

Deeply and gratefully sensible of the 
great honor you have done me in con- 



le 



Bon. iiiimlltou Fisft. 



nectioii with this occasion, and sincerely 
diffident of my ability to be worthy of 
it, I shall, in the short time that can be 
properly occupied with the subject this 
evening, endeavor to set forth something 
of the life and character of the man 
whose memory we have assembled to com- 
memorate, in connection with important 
events Avhich he to a large and often 
commanding degree influenced and shaped 
to lasting and useful ends. 

Mr. Fish was born in the city of New 
York on the third day of August, 1808. 
His parents were descendants — -on one side 
English and on the other Dutch — of the 
most respectable and influential of the 
inhabitants of Southeastern Xew York. 
His father. Colonel Nicholas Fish, was, dur- 
ing the Revolution, a trusted and gallant 
lieutenant of Washington and the intimate 
friend and companion of PTamilton, for 
whom Mr. Fish was named. His mother 
was a lineal descendant of Tetrus Stuy= 
vesant, the last (lovernor of New York 
under the colonial rule of the Dutch, — an 

J7 



Jtt ptcmoritinx. 



example of that social union and unity 
of different nationalities that happily fol- 
lowed the termination of the contests for 
supremacy at the great maritime gateway 
of the country, the prosperity and happi- 
ness of which very largely depended upon 
the peaceful unity of effort both in social 
and public affairs among all its people. 

Mr. Fish received his instruction prepara- 
tory for college at the famous school of 
Monsieur Bancel, an exiled French Legiti- 
mist, and thus acquired in his boyhood 
that well-grounded and lasting knowledge 
of the French language that became so 
useful to him in his administration of the 
Department of State fifty years later. 
After due preparation he entered Columbia 
College, and was graduated in 1827 with 
the highest lionors. He immediately com- 
menced the study of law in the office of 
Peter A. Jay, the eldest son of the Chief 
Justice, and was called to the bar of 
New York three years later. He formed 
a law partnership with William Beach 
Lawrence, the learned editor and com- 



18 



itou. Bamiltott Fisix. 



mentator of Wheaton's Fnternational Law, 
who had been then recentl}^ Secretary of 
Legation at Loudon while Albert Gallatin 
was minister. Mr. Fish devoted himself 
chiefly to chancery and real-estate practice, 
besides (as we must conclude from his 
display of vast and accurate knowledge 
of public law when he first came to the 
Secretaryship of State) giving much time 
to the study of international law which 
his association with Mr. Lawrence would 
naturally lead him to do. 

At that time the country was divided 
into two political parties, the Whigs and 
the Democrats, and upon issues involving 
the protection and development of home 
industries and the creation and extension 
of internal improvements to the end of 
making the commercial intercourse and the 
political and social solidarity of the 
country more easy and complete. The 
railway was in its earliest infancy, and 
the telegraph was unknown ; and the use 
of steam as a means of water transporta- 
tion had small development. 



19 



|tt plcmoviam. 



Mr. Fish belonged to the Whig party, 
aud gave whatever of assistance he could 
to the promotion of the policies that 
appertained to it. During the period of 
those earliest vears at the bar the execu- 
tion of the customs laws had brought 
on a crisis between the powers of the 
National Government and those of the 
States, manifested in the effort of South 
Carolina to nullify the laws of Congress. 
These events led Mr. Fish to the study 
of the structure of the government and 
the relation of its various parts and func- 
tions as partitioned and adjusted between 
the United States and the several States, 
in all their aspects, as well foreign as 
internal. Thus in the earliest years of 
his professional career he laid the founda- 
tion for that steady growth in the knowl 
edge of the principles and application of 
constitutional and pubhc law which made 
him when he came to the great responsibili- 
ties of important public station the master 
of the numerous questions — often unique 
and difficult — which so continually arose. 



20 



|tou. gitmiltou ^isK 



In 1834, at the age of twenty-six, he 
was the Whig candidate for the Assembly 
from a district of his native city, but 
was beaten. 

On the 15th of December, 1836, Mr. Fish 
was married to Miss JuHa Kean, daughter 
of Mr. Peter Kean, of Ursino, near Eliza- 
bethtown, N. J., whose father, John Kean, 
as a member from South Carohna of the 
Continental Congress, was one of the com- 
mittee which reported the famous ordinance 
of 1787, prohibiting slavery in the North- 
west Territory. 

During the years that followed he took 
his full part in the labors of a good 
citizen in the promotion of the interests of 
Columbia College and of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, of wliich he was a 
member, and in the establishment and 
progress of public libraries and other 
public institutions and charities in the 
then and still greatest city of the country. 

The wave of o-reat industrial and finan- 
cial prosperity in the country which 
had culminated under President Jackson's 

21 



In iUcmoviiim. 



administration, and resulted in a distri- 
bution of public moneys among the States, 
fell into the trough of general disaster 
and bankruptcy in 1837-38, during the 
administration of Mr. Yan Buren, and 
changed the currents of political action, 
so that at the age of thirty -four, in 1842, 
he was elected to Congress from a district 
in the citv of New York. At the next 
election he was beaten on party lines. 
In 184G he was nominated for Lieutenant- 
Governor of New York by the Whig 
State Convention, but was defeated, owing 
to the defection of the anti-renters though 
his associate on the ticket, — Governor 
Young was elected. But a year later, in 
1847, Lieutenant-Governor Gardiner having 
resigned, Mr. Fish was elected Lieutenant- 
Governor, at the age of thirty-nine, by a 
majority of about thirty thousand. In 
1848 he was selected by the Whigs as 
candidate for (xovernor, and ran against 
such worthy com})etitors as John A.. Dix, 
the Free-Soil candidate, and Reuben H. 
Walworth, Democrat. He was elected, and 



22 



iiaii. ilitmiltou Fistt. 



at the age of forty-one began his duties 
in that very important and responsible 
position on the first of January, 1849. 
At that time, following the election of 
Taylor and Fillmore, the stress of the 
slavery question, particularly in respect 
of the extension of slavery into territory 
where it did not previously exist, had 
become great, and the increasing aggres- 
siveness of the slave-holdmg States and 
their people in respect of extending the 
geographical area and the political power 
belonging to that institution had become 
so open and manifest that the people of 
the free States became aroused to a laroer 
comprehension of the incompatibility — 
indeed impossibihty — of carrying on a 
peaceful and homogeneous National Gov- 
ernment under circumstances of social and 
political institutions so utterly adverse and 
irreconcilable. It gradually came to be 
understood by the intelligent people of 
the country that these differences of situa- 
tion and of tendencv were inherent in the 
two svstems, and that what Mr. Seward 



S3 



%n DXcmoxinm. 



later described and characterized as an irre- 
pressible conflict could never be ended, or 
indeed even stayed, if the further expansion 
of slavery into free territory should take 
place. Governor Fish was deeply sensible 
of the perils of the situation, as he was, 
also, strongly impressed with the constitu- 
tional rights and duties, of whatever kind 
in respect of the institution of slavery, that 
the original compact had set forth in the 
constitution of the common country. To 
illustrate this I will read some extracts 
from his messages to the Legislature while 
Governor. 

He says, ^^The compromises of the Con- 
stitution, as they are famiharly termed, 
do not of right extend to territory beyond 
the limit of the original thirteen States. 
The privileges w^hich they concede may be 
granted, but can not be claimed for any 
newly-acquired territory." 

Again, '' If there be any one subject upon 
which the people of the State of New York 
approach near to unanimity of sentiment, 
it is in their fixed determination to resist 

24 



Hon. Bamiltou ^isTt. 



the extension of slavery over territory now 
free. With them it involves a great moral 
principle, and overrides all questions of tem- 
porary poUtical expediency. None venture 
to dissent, and in the mere difference of 
deo-ree in which the sentiment receives 
utterance it has proved p.)werful even to 
the breaking down of the strong barrier of 
party organization." 

And again, "They are now asked to 
become parties to the extension of slavery 
over territory already free. Their answer 
may be read in their past history. 1 beheve 
that it is almost, if not entirely, the unani- 
mous decision of the people of this State 
that under no circumstances will their assent 
be given to any action whereby the institu- 
tion of slavery shall be introduced into the 
territory of the United States from which 
it is now excluded. 

'^ It is no new declaration in behalf of 
the State of New York that she regards 
slavery as a moral, social, and political evil. 
* -'^ " Regarding it as a domestic relation, 
founded and limited to the original terri- 



26 



|n UX cm avium. 



torial lines of the State, — dependent for 
its continuance and its regulation upon 
the legislation of the several States, — New 
York exercised her exclusive power over 
the institution within her own borders, but 
has carefully avoided interfering with the 
right of any other States to regulate their 
policy in their own way, — not because her 
repugnance to human bondage or her attach- 
ment to the principles of universal freedom 
were confined to the limits of her own 
jurisdiction, but because of her attachment 
to the union of the States, and because 
of her strong I'cgard for the compact into 
which she had entered with those States." 

He declares that "by the treaty with 
^Mexico the Territories of New Mexico and 
Califoriua came to us free; and the laws 
of Mexico abolishing slavery, which were 
in force at the time of the cession, con- 
tinue to be operative and are not affected 
by any ti-ansfer of sovereignty over the 
Territory." 

He refers to the resolutions of the Legis- 
lature of the State in the same direction, 



26 



Bou. Hamilton Fistt. 



and says, "New York loves the union of 
the States. Slie will not contemplate the 
possibiHty of its dissolution ; and sees no 
reason to calculate the enormity of such 
a calamity. She also loves the cause of 
human freedom, and sees no reason to 
abstain from an avowal of her attachment 
While, therefore, she holds fast to the one, 
she will not forsake the other." 

These were great and noble expressions, 
and, comino- from the chief maiiistrate of 
the most powerful and populous State of 
the Union, could not have failed to exert 
immense influence in favor of constitutional 
liberty. They illuminate and illustrate the 
character of the man as a constitutional 
lawyer, as a patriotic statesman, and as a 
lover of justice and humanity for their own 
sakes. 

His term as Governor expired on the 1st 
of January, 1851, and without solicitation 
or effort on his part he was nominated by 
the Whig- members of the New York Leg- 
islature for the ofl&ce of Senator for the 
term commencine; on the 4th of March of 



27 



%n Ulcmoviiim. 



that year. The state of parties at that 
time was j^cculiar. The great struggle in 
respect of the extension of slavery had 
reached the sta^e where President Fillmore 
had signed the so-called compromise 
measures of 1850; and the important con- 
sideration remained as to how far the judg- 
ment of the people and the action of Senators 
and Members in Congress would support 
that measure to the end of its being, as 
its friends fondly but illusively hoped it 
would be, a final settlement of the trouble. 

President Fillmore had, on the occasion 
of his signitig the ineasure in the September 
preceding, in reply to a letter of congratula- 
tion from Mr. Fish on the termination of 
the struggle, written to him explaining his 
views and motives in respect of signing the 
bill, and stating his belief that it would 
restore harmony and ])eace to the country. 

Upon the nomination of Mr. Fish for 
Senator it was found, when the matter came 
to a vote in the two Houses of the Leg:- 
islature, that while he had a large majority 
in the Assembly, he lacked one of such 



28 



Boil. Bumiltou 2-isTt. 



majority in the Senate, which was so closely 
divided between parties that the defection 
of a single Whig left the Senate a tie. 
This defection occurred, and the Lieutenant- 
Governor, beini>: '<^ Democrat, concurrino' 
with his own party, left the matter in the 
condition where no joint Assembly could 
be had, as at that time there was no Act 
of Congress, as there is now, providing for 
such a state of thin2:s. 

The one Whig who, we must presume, 
thought himself unable to vote for Mr. Fish 
was concerned as to w^hat the attitude of 
Mr. Fish would be in respect of standing 
by these compromise measures as a final 
settlement of the controversy; and, of course, 
that attitude would be largely important to 
the Democratic members of the Legislature, 
some of whom were Avhat was called Free- 
Soilers, and others of whom were in strong 
sympathy with the views and wishes of the 
slave-holdini'- States. Mr. Fish had been 
a great admirer of Mr. Clay, whose course 
had been so largely instrumental in the pas- 
sage of the so-called compromise measures; 



29 



%x\ gtXcmovtam. 



and the Whig Senator wlio had declined to 
vote for Mr. Fish was understood to be 
largely under the influence of ^fr. Clay's 
wishes and opinions. Mr. Clay went so 
far as to write a private letter to the Col- 
lector of the Fort of New York, certainly 
strongly encouraging, if not advising, that 
this Senator should require as the sole con- 
dition on which he would vote for Mr. Fish 
that Mr. Fish's views and intentions should 
be publicly stated. This letter was used 
adversely to Mr. Fish, and came to his 
knowledii'e. Mr. Fish then wrote a calm 
and vigorous letter to Mr. Clay in respect 
of that kind of interference, and said " I 
have desired no concealment of my opinions 
upon the various important measures of 
the last session of Congress, nor (although 
Mr. '" '" " '", his employes, and certain other 
disappointed aspirants for the Senatorship 
may affect ignorance, or may assert that 
my views have been withheld) has there 
been any concealment. It is true that 
since the adoption of those measures I have 
had no occasion for a public or official 



30 



gon. IJumiVton Fish. 



expression of opinion. It is neither in 
accordance with my habits nor my taste 
to protrude myself or my opinions upon 
the pubUc, but I have both in conversation 
and in correspondence expressed my opinions 
very freely both upon the propriety, policy 
and details of several measures of the last 
Congress, and upon the imperative and 
absolute importance of the enforcement of 
all laws, however distasteful they may be 
to sectional feelings, and of the strictest 
regard for the supremacy of the law. " "" " 
While the election was immediately pending 
[ certainly did decline to be interrogated. 
* " ^' While a candidate 1 declined answer- 
ing any. I had not offered or been instru- 
Qfiental in making myself a candidate for 
the United States Senate. I had asked no 
gentleman to vote for me. 1 held a posi- 
tion entirely too elevated and dignified to 
be the object of even securing personal 
interference oi' solicitation on the part ol 
the candidate. Because I had no public 
opportunity of expressing any opinions on 
those questions, I would not do so en the 



31 



%n DXcmovium, 



eve of the election, lest the expression 
might be supposed to be directed so as to 
influence those who weie to vote upon the 
question. I therefore prefer to refer all 
inquirers to what I had previously said 
and written, and to let them judge me by 
my past action in life and by the opinions 
I had officially expressed upon all questions 
upon which it had become necessary to 
express opinions while I have been in any 
public position. " ^ '" " The State may 
be left with but one Senator, or, possibly, a 
Free-Soil Democratic Legislature mav next 
year send one of their faith ; but high as 
I esteem a seat in the United States Senate, 
I hold my own honor and character too 
high to attain that seat by what I should 
deem a sacrifice of consistency or of self- 
respect." 

This brave and independent attitude of 
Mr. Fish continued without variation or 
shadow of turning until after the middle of 
^larch, 1851, when he was elected. 

During his six years in the Senate Mr. Fish 
labored quietly and faithfully in the service 



3g 



^oti. Jlitmiltou FisTt. 



of his country, and did it in many ways 
which time does not permit me to enlarge 
upon. More service, perhaps, tluui many 
others who spoke more and labored less. 

Prince Bismarck is reported to have 
said at Yersailles. in 1871, that ''the 
gift of eloquence has done a great deal 
of mischief in parHamentary life. P]very- 
thing that is really to be done is settled 
beforehand in the committees, and the 
speeches in the House are delivered for 
the public in order to show what the 
speaker is capable of, and still more for 
the newspapers in the hope that they may 
praise. Is the poet or improvisatore exactly 
the sort of person to whom the helm of 
State, which requires cool, considerate 
manipulation, should be confided?" 

It was during this period that the AVhig 
party, as a distinct organization, ceased to 
exist. The unavoidable growth and develop- 
ment of the great conflicts of moral and 
political affairs that the institution of 
slavery necessarily created had reached a 
magnitude that entirely overshadowed all 



33 



Ju picmovium. 



those questions that in earlier and quieter 
times had divided opinions, although in 
respect of such questions the principles and 
declarations of the old Whig party had all 
the time continued to be the same. Hold- 
ing to those principles and declarations, 
Mr. Fish was reluctant to give up that 
organization, and believed that in time, 
and with it, upon the principles stated in 
his messages as Governor to which I have 
adverted, the peace and unity of the nation 
could be preserved and its material interests 
advanced ; but as the ultimate designs of 
the slave-holding propagandists grew more 
and more manifest, he cheerfullv came into 
the Republican organization in 1855-56, 
and gave all the strength of his great 
influence in aid of the effort to elect the 
Republican candidate for president, Genei'al 
Fremont. 

His change, or rather transfer, of position 
had not been rapid, but it was in keeping 
with and illustrative of what has been shown 
in his whole career, — that he rarely, if 
ever, had occasion to retrace his steps. 



84 



gou. Biimiltou yisTt. 



At the expiration of his term as Senator, 
on the 4th of March, 1857, he with his 
family visited Europe, and increased his 
ah'eady large knowledge of foreign countries 
and foreign affairs by personal observation 
and intercourse. He returned in time to 
give his earnest and effective aid to the 
election of President Lincoln. 

When the Rebellion broke out in the 
spring of 18G1, desiring no office, and ambi- 
tious of no perferment, he united in the 
formation in the city of New York of the 
Union Defense Committee, and soon after 
wards, when General Dix, its first chairman, 
went into the military service, he became 
the chairman of the committee. This com- 
mittee in its influence and labors was of 
immense value to the Union cause, for it, 
in a large degree, filled the interval between 
the sudden commencement of war, when 
the national authorities were unprovided 
with means and appliances for its vigorous 
prosecution, until systematic government 
arrangements and operations could be 
undertaken and carried on. It might 



85 



%n JWanoviiXui. 



almost be said that it was of more value 
than any one army in the field, for it 
arranged and provided for the raising and 
forwarding of troops, and attended to the 
thousand indispensable incidents and neces- 
sities attendant thereon. In this work 
Mr. Fish was constant and devoted. 

Later in the war of the Rebellion, 
Mr. Fish was the leading member of the 
commission appointed by President Lincoln 
to arrange with the Rebel authorities for 
the exchange of prisoners. There had been 
great difficulty in respect of this matter 
on account of the circumstance that at 
least some of the heads of the executive 
departments of our government were under 
the impression that an arrangement for the 
exchange of prisoners would be a measure 
which of itself would amount to an acknowl- 
edgment of a state of public war, and 
would, therefore, embarrass the United 
States in the attitude that they occupied 
in respect of the action of foreign powers. 
But as we can now see it, it is plain to 
everybody that after the first few months 



36 



Jton. HitmiUon FisTt. 



of hostilities there was a state of war which^ 
by whatever name it might be called, aud 
however it miiiht affect the relations and 

CD 

duties of foreign powers, every sentiment 
of humanity must consider not only to 
warrant but to demand an arrangement 
between the conflicting powers for the 
exchange of their respective prisoners. Tt 
was to endeavor to effectuate such ends 
that Mr. Fish and his associate commis- 
sioners were sent to confer with the Con- 
federate authorities. Through his efforts 
and those of his associates an arrangement 
for the exchange of prisoners was agreed 
upon, which continued from that time to 
the close of the Avar. 

We now come in historical order to the 
career of Mr. Fish as Secretarv of State, 
covering, except six days, the whole of 
General Grant's terms as President from 
the 4th of March, 1869, to the 4th of 
March, 1877. 

When Mr. Fish was asked to take the 
ofl&ce of Secretary of State, he had not 
had the slightest wish or expectation of 



37 



%n JJXcmovhttw. 



being called upon for that service, and his 
correspondence with the President on the 
subject shows with how great reluctance 
he accepted the office, as well as for what 
a short period of time he expected to per- 
form its duties. At first he declined it, but 
General (Jrant immediately and urgently 
repeated his invitation, and before Mr. Fish 
had had an opportunity to again decline, 
sent his name to the Senate for confirma- 
tion, which immediately took place. In 
view of the embarrassments which had 
already occurred in respect of the place 
and of that of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
Mr. Fish consented to undertake, for a short 
time, the duties of the most important of 
the departments of the government, reserv- 
ing the permission held out by the letter 
of the President that he could '^withdraw 
after the adjournment of Congress." He 
continued, however, to serve his country 
through the whole period I have named, 
and, with one exception, was the only head 
of a departnient who continued to do so. 
This continued service did not arise from 



38 



<T' 



Bon. iiitmiltou I'lsTt. 



any wish of his, or through any change in 
his desire to return to private life. The 
correspondence and papers upon the subject, 
which I have had the opportunity to peruse, 
as well as my own personal knowledge, 
enable me to say that repeatedly, from time 
to time, and from year to year, Mr. Fish 
asked the President to consent to his with- 
drawing from the heavy cares, responsibili- 
ties and embarrassments of the station ; 
and once or twice it went so far that the 
President had consented to his withdrawal, 
and had looked for a successor ; but find- 
ing that no safe and satisfactory arrange- 
ment could, as the President thought, be 
made for a new incumbent, he appealed to 
Mr. Fish to withdraw his resignation and 
continue to give him the benefit of his 
service ; and once, even this appeal it was 
thought wise to reinforce by the urgent 
and concerted entreaties of many of the 
friends of the President and of Mr. Fish in 
the Senate 

AA^hen President Grant came into office 
there were pending, aside from the great 



89 



%n UXcmovuim. 



and difficult questions of reconstruction, two 
questions of foreign relations of very large 
moment. One was the matter with Great 
Britain in respect of the conduct of that 
government during the war of the Rebellion, 
by its having, after a hasty acknowledgment 
of a state of belligerency, permitted the 
fitting out of rebel cruisers in its ports, 
which cruisers had made indiscriminate 
havoc among the unarmed merchant vessels 
of the United States. President Johnson 
had neo'otiated a convention with Great 
Britain (known as the Johnson-Clarendon 
Convention) providing in a certain way for 
the settlement of all claims between the 
two countries, including those I have 
referred to. This convention was pending 
in the Senate unacted upon at the accession 
of General Grant. It was rejected by the 
Senate on the 13th of April, 18G9, by (with 
the exception of one vote) the unanimous 
action of the Senate. Both political parties 
concurred in the opinion that it was 
entirely inadequate to the occasion, both 
in respect of the principles, or perhaps 



40 



it on. itamlltoii ifislx. 



rather the want of principle, upon which 
it proceeded, as well as in respect of the 
confusion and inefficacy of the methods 
provided for the settlement of the matters 
involved. The rejection of the treaty led, 
naturally, to a state of strain and irritability 
between the two countries that did not 
augur well for that cordiality and freedom 
of intercourse that would best promote 
the welfare of both. It had been contended 
by some very eminent and influential 
persons in this country that Great Britain 
was pecuniarily responsible, beyond her 
liabihty for the action of the rebel cruisers, 
for national losses arising, as it was main- 
tained, from the mere act of her recogniz- 
ing the Confederacy as belligerents. This 
was a proposition to which Her Majesty's 
government would in no manner assent; and 
now, at this period of time, when the heats 
of that occasion are subsided, it is obvious 
that such a doctrine is not one which the 
United States would find to comport with 
either their dignity or their interest to 
adopt. Mr, Fish, while he felt, and stated 



41 



Ju !5rtcmoxHam» 



strongly in his correspondence of the time, 
the o:rievoiis moral wron^i: of Great Britain 
in the premature and hasty recognition 
of belligerency and the consequent enormous 
injury to the United States occasioned 
thereby, nevertheless stated privatel}^ to 
his friends the true doctrine upon the 
subject as follows : 

'^ Public law recognizes the right of a 
sovereign power, when a civil conflict has 
broken out in another country, to deter- 
mine when that conflict has attained suf- 
ficient complexity, magnitude and complete- 
Dess to require (not merely excuse), for the 
protection of its own interests and peace, 
and all the interests, relations and duties 
of its own citizens or subjects, a definition 
of its relations and of the relations of its 
citizens or subjects to those of the parties 
to the conflict. In the exercise of this right 
the foreign power is responsible to the gen- 
eral obligations of right, and must be guided 
by facts and not by prejudices," etc. 

In this state of unpleasant feeling it 
required the utmost delicacy and skill of 



42 



%on, ^umilton 3-"istt. 



diplomatic treatment to i-eopen the ques- 
tions and bring the matter to such a 
settlement between the two nations as 
should, upon the principles of public law, 
be just to the United States. 

In May, 1869, Mr. Fish informed Mr. 
Motley, who had succeeded Mr. Reverdy 
Johnson as Minister to England, that he 
thought the ([uestion had " reached a point 
where the important interests of the two 
countries required some intermission of 
discussion to allow the excitement and 
irritation between them to subside." 

The situation in this country was ren- 
dered specially unpleasant and embarrass- 
ing by reason of unfortunate differences 
and misunderstandings that arose between 
the President and Senator Sumner, and 
into w^hich Mr. Fish was unavoidably more 
or less drawn. This is not the proper 
occasion for discussing that controversy, 
even if at any time its discussion would 
now be useful, but I can say, both from 
considerable personal knowledge at the 
time and from a recent perusal of the 



43 



%xi 'QXcmoviiXm, 



private diaries of Mr. Fish, that throughout 
it all he eudeavored to the utmost of his 
power to keep the relations between these 
great men pleasaut, and to restore them 
w^hen they had become strained, and that it 
gave him great pain that he was unable to 
accomplish his friendly and patriotic purpose. 
The interval of repose, as it publicly 
appeared, which ^[r. Fish thought so desir- 
able after the rejection of the Johnson- 
Clarendon treaty, continued until late in 
1870, though in the meantime occasional 
private correspondence and diplomatic hints 
and references to the subject had occurred. 
Mr. Motley had been informed that it w^as 
desirable that any further negotiations 
upon the subject should be held in Wash- 
ington rather than in London, and there 
had been considerable confidential commu- 
nication of an entirely unofficial character 
upon the subject between Mr. Fish and a 
very eminent subject of Her Majesty, 
Sir John Rose, and who, doubtless, was 
really acting under the authority of the 
British foreign office. 



44 



gon. gumiltciu ^"isti. 



About the 1st of July, 1S70, Mr. Motley 
was recalled by direction of the President, 
and General Schenck was appointed to 
succeed him. The course of affairs during 
the long interval between the rejection of 
the Johnson-Clarendon treaty down to the 
public reopening of negotiations is clearly 
and concisely stated by Mr. Fish himself in 
a private letter of the 30th of May, 1871, 
to Dr. Lieber, as follows: ''You have asked 
me whether the transfer of the negotiations 
in the Alabama question from London to 
Washin2;ton orio'inated with me. The idea 
and determination were mine even before 
the rejection of the Johnson-Clarendon 
treaty. Soon after I entered upon the 
ofiice of Secretary of State I saw that that 
treaty was foredoomed to be rejected. I 
then decided, and expressed to the President 
the opinion, that we must take pause in 
the discussion with Great Britain, and when 
the excitement and a£»;itation had subsided 
(which would ensue on the rejection of the 
treaty), we should insist that any negotia- 
tions be held here. In my instructions to 

A3 



Ju lUcmorium. 



Mr. Motley of the 15th of May, 18G9, I 
instructed hiin to suggest a suspense of the 
question. On the 2Sth of June, 18G1), I 
instructed liini that when the negotiations 
shoukl be renewed Ave desired them to be 
conducted in this country. * '" '^ ^ The 
sending a special mission — some person 
of high official rank — was suggested by me 
in May, 1SG9, and was the subject of close 
confidential conversation and correspondence 
with influential persons in England as early 
as the 1st of June, 18G9. The corres- 
pondence was continued in this mode 
until the fruit ripened. The official letters 
between Sir Edward Thornton and me 
(which of course were written, received, 
exchanged, and had passed through the 
cable word for word before they w^ere sent) 
finally took date and signature in the latter 
part of January last. These four letters 
were the official particulars of twenty 
months' secret diplomacy." 

The correspondence and memoranda cover- 
ing this period of time, and including the 
final negotiation of the treaty providing 



46 



Hon. Hamilton Flslt. 



for the settlement of the questions, show 
that the scheme and form of the treaty 
were the idea and the work of Mr. Fish, 
aided, of course, from time to time, by 
the advice of such gentlemen in public 
and private life as he thought it fit to 
consult, and by the very valuable assist- 
ance of Mr. J. C. Bancroft Davis, his 
assistant secretary. In doing this work 
Mr. Fish had to contend with some most 
astonishing and extravagant propositions, 
insisted upon by some gentlemen high in 
public life as a sine qua non of entering 
into anv ne2:otiations at all. Some of 
them were such that there is good reason 
to believe that the mere statement of them 
to the British government would have put 
an end to all negotiations at once. And, 
on the other hand, Mr. Fish had to con- 
tend with the astute and earnest efforts 
of the British government to so frame the 
treaty as to reduce our chances of success 
to a minimum. At last, after many con- 
sultations and the overcoming of many diffi- 
culties, the basis for the appointment of 



47 



<?1 



n lUcmoviiim. 



the Joint High Commission for the purpose 
of discussing the mode of settlement and 
the adjustment of the differences between 
the two countries w^as completed; and on 
the Dth of February, 1871, President Grant 
sent to the Senate a statement of the fact, 
and his nomination of commissioners on 
the part of the United States, of which 
commission Mr. Fish was chairman. As 
is known, the commission met, and its 
efforts in inducing Great Britain to express 
its regret for what happened, and in 
framins: a treaty for the submission of 
these subjects of dispute to an international 
tribunal were successful. The treaty having 
been made, the next step was the fram- 
ing of the American case. This very 
important work Mr. Fish intrusted to his 
assistant, Mr. Davis, who performed it, 
under the general direction of Mr. Fish, 
in the best possible manner. No stronger 
statement of the position and rights of 
the United States could, I think, have 
been set forth by any one. The great 
tribunal met at Geneva, and proceeded 



48 



^oii. Hitmiltou Fish. 



witli its business. The settlement was at 
one time very nearly wrecked by the 
refusal of the British government to pro- 
ceed unless the United States would agree 
to withdraw from the consideration of the 
tribunal everything connected with indirect 
losses, but through the wise and delicate 
management of Mr. Fish here^ and Mr. 
Davis and the American counsel at Geneva 
(chief among whom was an eminent New 
Yorker, still living, ^Ir. Evarts), the dif&- 
cultv was overcome, and a final result 
reached by the tribunal honorable to both 
countries, and having strong guarantees of 
peace among nations by the declaration 
of some important principles of public law. 
In all this long period of ditticulty and 
struggle, both within and without the 
country, the patience and skill, the fertility 
of resource, and the persistent energy of 
Mr. Fish were almost marvelous. 

During the same time another most 
important and embarrassing question — 
namely, that of our relations with Spain 
in respect of the so-called Cuban revolu- 



49 



Ju UXtmovium. 



tion — was pressing upon the administra- 
tion of General (!rant and exciting both 
Houses of Congress. Time docs not permit 
me to go into the subject in any detail. 
It is sufficient to say that the continuance 
of peace between the two countries was 
most seriously menaced. Speeches were 
made in Congress advocating acknowledg- 
ing a state of belligerency, and, I believe, 
advocating the recognition of the indepen- 
dence of Cuba. The Cabinet w^as divided 
in respect of the course that should be 
pursued, and at one time matters had 
gone so far that a Presidential proclama- 
tion was pre])ared and signed acknowledg- 
ing a state of belligerency between Spain 
and Cuba, although at that time the Cuban 
insurrectionists had neither port, seat of 
government, nor civil courts, and although 
belligerency would have given Spain, under 
the ti'eaty of 171)5, rights of searcli, etc., 
most injuiious to our commerce. Great 
pressure was brought to bear upon the 
President to issue such proclamation, and 
it was current knowledoje of the time that 



go 



gou, Bamittou JHsK 



Cuban bonds payable Avhen Cuba should 
have achieved its independence were find- 
ing some kind of a market in the United 
States with a view of creating interest 
and influence in support of the scheme. 
Fortunately President Grant had time for 
reflection, and upon the earnest and urgent 
advice of Mr. Fish, instead of issuing the 
proclamation recognizing the belligerency, 
he sent a message to Congress stating the 
real situation, with his views thereon, and 
then the bubble burst. 

Another very important matter of foreign 
affairs was also engaging the attention of 
the Administi'ation and of Conoress relatiuo; 
to San Domingo. In November, 1860, a 
treaty was negotiated with that Republic 
by Mr. Perry, the United States Minister, 
for its annexation to the United States. In 
the negotiation of this treaty, General 
Babcock, the private secretary (military, I 
think) of the President, was chiefly employed, 
and Mr. Fish does not appear to have 
taken any special part further than to 
cause to be kept out of it a contemplated 



SI 



%n lUcmovUim. 



provision for the annexation of San Domingo 
as a State of the Union ; and sundry other 
recjuirements were suggested by hini in 
regard to getting rid of or keeping free 
from various grants and suspected jobs then 
thought to exist in and concerning the 
island. But I think Mr. Fish was in favor 
of the acquisition of the island as a terri- 
tory under the dominion of the United 
States, with a view to our naval and 
commercial advantage in that quarter of 
the globe. The treaty was rejected by 
the Senate chiefly on the ground, as 
I believe, that the inhabitants of the 
island were almost Avholly incapable of 
self-government, and still more incapable 
of taking part in the government of the 
United States, that their language, habits 
and customs were entirely diiferent from 
those of the people of this country, and 
that the probable result of annexation 
would be in the not far future the 
admission of the island as a State, having 
an equal voice in the Senate \vith every 
other State. Whether in view of our 

32 



^on. Humlltou Fistt. 



increasing interests in the means of inter- 
oceanic communication it would not have 
been Avise to run the risk of possible State- 
hood is a question which now very likely 
would be decided in ftivor of taking the risk. 
It is true in fact as well as in philosophy 
that " alterations in the sentiments of a 
people are not effected in a minute or a 
year. Even the recognition of the changed 
point of view does not involve an imme- 
diate or uniformly timed perception of 
wherein the new differs from the old. 
Nations no more than individuals have the 
power nor are they in the habit of study- 
ing their shifting moods and tracing the 
logical sequence between the aversions of 
yesterday, the polite amenities of to-day 
and the foreshadowed alliances of to- 



morrow.'' 



In 1873-74 the questions concerning the 
currency of the United States became 
urgent. A panic had occurred in 1873 
which had operated disastrously upon the 
industry and business of the country, and 
the panacea for it was thought by many 



63 



In iHcmoviam. 



of the most eminent personal and political 
fiiends of President Grant to be a still 
further issue of paper money ; and a very 
large body of the people were of the same 
mistaken opinion. Accordingly, early in 
1874, Congress passed a bill commonly 
known as the Inflation Bill Very areat 
pressure was brought upon the President 
to sign it, and equally vigorous were the 
efforts and protests of those who thought 
it ought to be vetoed. The President was 
in great doubt as to Avhat his duty was. 
He had frequent interviews with Mr Fish 
upon the subject, and Mr. Fish gave to 
him fully and cogently the reasons that it 
appeared to him should compel the Presi- 
dent to withhold his approval of it. There 
is good reason to believe that all the 
members of the Cabinet, except Mr. Fish 
and Mr. Creswell, the Postmaster-General, 
were in favor of the bill being approved. 
The urgency of the friends of the bill 
appeared to have jjrevailed, and the Presi- 
dent set about drawing up a message to 
accompany hi.s approval of the bill, stating 



84 



on. Hamilton ITisTi. 



his objections to some of its features and 
finally his reasons for approving it ; but 
after a day or two Mr. Fish was again 
sent for, and was told by the President 
that he had been engaged in writing a 
message giving the best reasons he could 
find for approving the bill, but that the 
more he wrote and the more he thought, 
be was the more convinced that the bill 
should not become a law ; and he was then 
writing another message refusing his assent 
to the bill. On the next day, April 21, in 
the Cabinet meeting, the President stated 
the conclusion which he had reached, and 
read the draft of the veto message. A 
member of the cabinet, who very warmly 
wished to have the bill approved, suggested 
that it was always well to lay important 
papers aside till the next day for further 
reflection. The President humorously replied 
that he would do so, and in the meantime 
would have it copied for signature. On 
the next day the veto message was signed 
and sent to Cono-ress. There is no room 
to doubt that the position and reasons or 

55 



%n I>Xcmoiium. 



Mr. Fish were more influential than those 
of any other one man in inducing the 
President to take the course he did on 
that occasion. The wild notion of having 
a paper currency not redeemable in coin 
was thus defeated, and the good effect of 
the veto was soon made manifest by the 
passage in the next year of the act provid- 
ing for a resumption of specie payments and 
the limitation of the amount of the paper 
money of the government which should 
thereafter be outstanding. To this measure 
Mr. Fish gave his most earnest support. 
The result of that act was that the paper 
money of the United States soon came to 
the par of coin and has so continued since. 
In the same year, 1875, very serious 
questions arose in connection with what 
was called reconstruction, and especially in 
respect of the State of Louisiana and in 
regard to the propriety of the military of 
the United States being employed, even 
on the call of the (Governor of a State, 
to in any way interfere with the organiza- 
tion or proceedings of a Legislature, or of 



ae 



lion. Jlamiltott ^isTt. 



a body of men claiming to be a Legislature, 
further than to assist in keeping the peace. 
Ou this question Mr. Fish's views were strong 
and decided, and had a great effect in pre- 
venting the President from taking a position 
which might have become a very unfortu- 
nate precedent. 

In 187G the Presidential contest between 
Mr. Hayes and Mr. Tilden arose, and in 
that critical and dangerous time Mr. Fish 
was among the most earnest and yet con- 
siderate advocates of the creation of the 
Electoral Commission. The result of the 
action of that commission was the orderly 
succession of President Hayes upon principles 
of constitutional law which, though then 
much disputed, have since been enacted 
into permanent law by the almost unani- 
mous vote of both Houses of Congress. 

I can not allude to many other interest- 
ing and more or less important adminis- 
trative events occurring during the eight 
years of Mr. Fish's administration of the 
State Department. I may perhaps, however, 
have time to mention one relating to the 



S7 



Ztt B:tcmovutm. 



expatriation of naturalized citizens. This 
question was brought prominently into view 
during the Franco-German war, when 
Mr. Fish brought into practice what is 
now generally conceded to be the true 
principle, and which has been followed by 
many treaties upon the subject. He main- 
tained that the naturalized citizen, havins: 
obtained the privileges of citizenship, was 
also as fully bound as a native to perform 
the duties of citizenship, and that, while 
all the powers of the government should 
be exerted in defense of the rights of 
natui'alized citizens as fully as in the case 
of natives, the duties and obligations of the 
naturalized citizens were precisely as large 
and as bindino- as those of natives ; and 

CD / 

that when naturalization was souirht and 
obtained oidy for the ])ur])ose of exchang- 
ing nationality in order that the naturalized 
citizen might return to and reside in the 
land of his nativitv discharii:ed from all the 
obligations of his foi'mer duties there, he 
was not deserving of the protection of the 
government of his adoption. 



S8 



Jtou. ilamitton Fish. 



During the last administration of Presi- 
dent Grant, Mr. Fish was engaged in 
important correspondence witli the British 
government on the subject of the Chiyton- 
Bulvver treaty, in which he maintained — 
with what, I thought, complete and just 
reasou — that the United States were no 
longer bound by its provisions, and that 
our relations with the governments of 
Central America could be carried on with- 
out anv embarrassments arisimi: from that 

t/ CD 

treaty. A later Secretary (not your great 
citizen who succeeded Mr. Fish in office), 
in his correspondence with the British gov- 
ernment, appeared to proceed upon the 
assumption that that treaty was still bind- 
ing : but the Senate of the United States, 
during the administration of President 
Arthur, considered a treaty negotiated by 
him with Nicaragua for the building of the 
Nicaragua canal under the auspices and 
control of the United States, upon the con- 
viction that that ti-eaty was no longer in 
force ; and the treaty received, if T am 
rightly informed, the affirmative votes of a 



39 



%n lytcmovinuu 



great majority of the Senate, lacking only 
three of a two-thirds majority. These 
events are, I am sure, of much consequence 
to the United States, in view of the present 
condition of affairs in that region. 

In the winter of 1876-77, Mr. Fish was 
earnestly engaged in the negotiation of a 
treaty with the Republic of Nicaragua, 
looking to the construction of the Nicaragua 
canal, and the matter went so far that the 
draft of a convention for that purpose was 
made up and nearly perfected, when the 
negotiations were broken off on account of 
its having been discovered that there were 
then outstanding grants by the Republic of 
Nicaragua which would, as Mr. Fish thought, 
be quite inconsistent with the provisions of 
the treaty. 

Mr. Fish retired from the State Depart- 
ment on the coming in of President Hayes, 
he and one other (Mr. liobeson) being the 
only members of the Cabinet of fxeneral 
(irant who had continued in office from the 
beginning. This period of his public life 
was, as you will have seen, crowded with 



60 



Hon. Hamilton 3"isK 



important events and full of diversified diffi- 
culties and struggles which often produced 
strained relations between governments, and 
excited animosities and discordances amono- 
the pubHc men of the United States; and 
they were sometimes attended, I am sorry 
to say, with suspicions and rumors of selfish 
and corrupt motives on the part of some. 
It natui-ally happened, as has, indeed, hap 
peued so often in many administrations in 
this country and in others, that Mr. Fish 
was sometimes the object of bitter attack 
and of personal abuse from persons whose 
unworthy objects he had resolutely at- 
tempted — and generally successfully — to 
defeat. But, I believe, Mr. Fish never 
made any public reply to such assaults, but 
bore them with the calmness that belonged 
to a resolute and self-possessed character, 
conscious of its own rectitude and contemp- 
tuous of the evil tongues of evil men. 

In this rapid and necessarily brief review 
of the public life of Mr. Fish I have only 
mentioned the public stations held bv him, 
but this short sketch would be incomplete 



61 



^u IHcmovUim. 



did I not say that in the whole time of 
his manhood hf'e he was connected with 
and active in numerous institutions of busi- 
ness, education, charity, and rehgion. 
Among them it may be mentioned that 
he was president of the general Society 
of the Cincinnati for nearly forty years, a 
ti'ustee of Columbia College for more than 
fifty years, and chaii-man of its board of 
trustees for more than thirty years, a 
trustee of the Astor Librar^r, one of the 
presidents of the New Yoi-k Historical 
Society, and almost constantly a delegate 
to the Diocesan and (xeneral Conventions 
of the Protestant Episco])al Church and a 
member of the committee of that church 
on. the revision of the Prayer-Book. 

During his residence in AVashington his 
house was always the seat of a most 
generous and unostentatious hos])itality. 
It was presided over by Mrs. Fish, that 
most accomplished and gracious lady, — 
who went to her rest in 1887, — whose 
memory will always be dear not only to 
those who had the honor of knowing her 

62 



Hon. Bamiltou FisU^ 



in the ordinary walks of official and social 
life, but to the humble, the poor, and the 
sorrowful, to whom her sympathies and 
assistance were always extended with that 
Christian gentleness and cordiality that 
illuminate o'ood deeds in a troubled world. 
Returning in 1877 to his old city home 
in New York, and to his beautiful country 
place in the highlands of the Hudson filled 
with memories of the revolutionary events 
in which his father had part, he continued 
to interest himself in all that makes for 
the business and social welfare of society, 
and of the church to which he was so 
much attached. He continued, also, to feel 
interest in all pul)lic and especially inter- 
national transactions, and in April, 1882, 
he had the opportunity to do important 
service to his country in the matter of 
the arrests of naturalized citizens of the 
United States in Ireland. Notwithstanding 
the strong statements in the American 
case at Cleneva of the adverse attitude 
of many influential members of the British 
Cabinet during the Rebellion, which had 



68 



Ju i)Xcniorium. 



brought from one of them, who has ever 
since been, perhaps, tlie most powerful of 
British (^ommoners, an unofficial communi- 
cation to our Minister at London, endeavor- 
ing to explain his position, and with what 
amounted to a recpiest that Secretary 
Fish should modifv the statements in the 
American case, which had been prepared 
by Mr Davis (which modification was not 
made), Mr. Fish's great and just reputa- 
tion in P]ngland enabled him, at a crisis 
between the two governments respecting 
these arrests, by a simple private telegram 
to Sir John Rose, to relieve the tension 
then existing and to greatly expedite, if not 
absolutely to produce, the immediate release 
of most of the Irish-American prisoners. 

As I have now rapidly sketched the 
principal parts of his public and business 
life, I tui'n with joy to pay (with, I am 
sure, all my brother churchmen, and, 
indeed, with all Christian men) the tribute 
that is most justly due to him for his 
fife-long and steadfast interest in and 
labors for, the promotion and advancement 



64 



Pon. Hamilton Flslt. 



of church work in the best and most 
comprehensive sense of that term. He 
knew that the fundamental doctrines of 
the gospel, and the works that those 
doctrines required of every believer, 
demanded for their best achievements the 
same sort of organization and systematic 
administration that are essential in worldly 
affairs. So he was an active member of 
the Protestant Episcopal church ; not as a 
bigot or controversialist, but with a large 
and kindly sympathy and respect for all 
other Christian churches that with the 
same true faith were, by methods and in 
forms different from those of his own 
church, working in the field of the com- 
mon Master. In this life-long work the 
trained powers of his intellect, his business 
methods, and his great activity came to 
the service of the sympathies and aspira- 
tions of his soul in all the diverse aspects 
and attitudes of church work, just as his 
religious character gave, reciprocally, to 
his business and public labors the illumina- 
tion of truthj justice, and honor. 



6S 



Ju Dlcmijvhitu. 



I have thus endeavored to recall to your 
view^ the chief events and incidents in the 
course of his long and spotless life. The 
details and associated circumstances of 
them are most interesting and valuable. 
It is to be hoped that in due time the 
contents of his voluminous correspondence 
and his copious diaries may be made public. 

It is amazing that any one man could 
have done so much in almost every 
variety of affairs, and always so well. 
There seems to have been ever present 
in Ms mind unlimited and well-ordered 
stores of historical and political knowledge, 
and a complete and accurate knowledge 
of constitutional and public law ready for 
use on every occasion. He possessed the 
rare faculty of quickly co-ordinating and 
arranging in logical order the circum- 
stances of fact with which he had to 
deal and applying to them the principles 
of law and justice which related to them; 
and he thus reached conclusions that he 
almost never found cause to change. Surely 
the intellectual tree that bore such fruits^ 
LofC. ^^ 



gou. g^aiuiltou i^isk. 



so many aud so good — must have been 
of the sturdiest oak, with branches wide 
and strong, and its roots must have been 
grounded in the deepest and purest soil 
of the moral and religious character of 
man. His courage was always equal to 
his convictions. Neither menace nor 
calumny, nor flattery, nor self-interest 
could swerve or stop him from walking 
in the path on which the truest light fell 
for him. Thus the great and varied work 
he did was easy for him compared with 
other men whose course might be affected 
by many idle winds of doctrine, or tempests 
of passion, or the quicksands of self- 
interest. His personal life and character 
were pure and self-contained. His manners 
were courteous, calm, self-possessed, and 
pleasant, and he rarely gave way to the 
sometimes proper open manifestation of 
feelings of righteous indignation. Such was 
the life and character of this citizen to 
whose memory we do honor to-night. It 
is true that he had extraoi'dinary and 
auspicious surroundings at the beginning 

67 



In lUcmovlum. 



&**' <*' 



of his career; but it is the aggregate of 
individual lives that make a local society, 
a state, and a nation ; and it is the 
character of each separate life that makes 
up the quality and tone of the mass. 
The accidents of birth, or fortune, or 
particular opportunity are quite apart from 
the constant duty of every citizen to do 
his best for the good of all. The life 
and conduct of the humblest as vs^ell as 
the highest is an inseparable and an equal 
element in the great sum of human affairs. 
The last few years of his life (shadowed 
only by his human sorrow in the death 
of Mrs. Fish, who had been for more 
than fifty years the beloved sharer of all 
his joys and solicitudes) were passed in 
the serenity of contented old age, and in 
the society of his devoted children. His 
intellect remained unclouded, and his 
interest in all good works both public 
and private, as well as in the lives of 
his many personal friends, continued to 
the end. His peaceful death occurred on 
the 7th day of September, 1893, at his 



68 



Bon. Biimiltou Flstx. 



country home on the shores of your 
beautiful river, when for him the future 
opened her gateways of gold to the larger 
and happier life. 

From a personal and somewhat intimate 
acquaintance with Mr. Fish, from the spring 
of 1869 to the day of his death, I can say, 
without disparagement of others, that I have 
never known any man who, all in all, — on 
every side of his character and behavior, — 
came nearer to the perfect type of the 
American citizen and the Christian man. 

Your Excellency and the Legislature do 
well to give high honors to his memory. 
But what you now do is not a memorial 
only. His career and the grateful tributes 
you bestow in the name of the people 
whom he served so well, are continual 
inspirations to better lives, higlier purposes, 
and more earnest efforts in your noble 
State and in our great Republic, to the 
end that the common welfare and true 
progress, private and public justice, and 
civil and political equality, may increase and 
prevail more and more, until in our beloved 



69 



%n gbtcmovtaitt. 



land all our ways shall become ways of 
pleasantness and all our paths are peace. 
The exercises were concluded by hymn 
"God Bless Our Native Land." (America): 

God bless our native land ! 
Firm may she ever stand, 

Thro' storm and night ; 
When the wild tempests rave, 
Ruler of winds and wave, 
Do thou our country save 

By thy great might. 

For her our prayer shall rise 
To God, above the skies; 

On Him we wait ; 
Thou who art ever nigh, 
Guarding with Avatchful eye, 
To thee aloud we cry, 

God save the State. Ainen. 

After which the Rev. W. W. Batter- 
shall, 1). D., pronounced the following 
benediction : 

The God of peace, who brought again from the 
dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the 
sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant; 
Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, 
working in you that which is well pleasing in his 
sight ; through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for 
ever and ever. Amen. 

70 



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